France
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France and its capital, Paris, have played
an immensely important role for the
development of international Volleyball.
At a meeting held in Paris from April
18-20, 1947, Volleyball federations from
14 countries founded the Federation
International de Volleyball (FIVB), the
sport's governing body. Now, with its 217
affiliated national federations, the FIVB
is the largest international sports
federation in the world and boasts no less
than 34,780,153 registered players and
millions more who play the sport
recreationally.

It was again Paris, who
hosted the 1956 World Championship with 24
men's teams from four continents, that
time France finished seventh. At another
World Championship held in Paris 30 years
later the French side finished sixth.

In 2002, France pulled off one
of the major surprises at the World
Championship in Argentina when they
overwhelmed the Olympic champions
Yugoslavia to claim the bronze and set off
a frenzy of media reporting on the
national team. To add more glory to the
teams best ever performance, Frantz
Granvorka became the tournament's Best
Server while Hubert Henno was awarded the
Best Digger.

During the 1980s, France also
fought to the top spot in Europe, winning
the silver medals at the European
Championship in 1987 (Belgium) and the
bronze in 1985 (the Netherlands).

France also participated in the opening three editions
of the World League then returned to the
elite selection in 2000. In 2001, France
qualified for the finals for the first
time to finish fifth. In 2002, the
French had a great start, winning the
preliminary phase pool but the finals
turned out to be a disappointment and gave
no warning to their opposition that two
months later they would power back into
the international limelight and claim the
World Championship bronze medal in
Argentina. However the 2003 edition was a
poor return for France as they failed to
qualify for World League Final Round.

Judging on past performances perhaps that
is a good omen heading into the 2003 World
Cup in Japan - a tournament they have
competed in only once before, in 1965
where they finished 11th.